Police say it's the first report of such a marking they’ve seen in some time, and the swastika could be an isolated incident. But they are on alert.

Law enforcement officials across the country have been more wary of such incidents in recent weeks, with a stream of troubling incidents reported across the country.

This month's violent demonstrations in Charlottesville, where self-described Nazis, white nationalist groups and the Ku Klux Klan clashed with counter-protesters, was the most prominent instance of what some observers say has become a disturbing trend.

But among groups who try to track the numbers, including the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the non-profit news organization ProPublica, which is creating a national database of hate crimes and bias, the trends seem to all be moving in the same direction.

Multiple white nationalist groups prepare to march with torches through the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville on Friday, August 11, 2017. 'Unite the Right' rally organizer Jason Kessler prepares to lead the marchers.
Mykal McEldowney/IndyStar

White nationalist groups, a member pictured on right, feud with counterprotesters on the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville on Friday, August 11, 2017. Before the clash the white nationalists marched with torches through the campus.
Mykal McEldowney/IndyStar

White nationalist groups, right, feud with counterprotesters on the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville on Friday, August 11, 2017. Before the clash the white nationalists marched with torches through the campus.
Mykal McEldowney/IndyStar

A white nationalist, right, pepper sprays a counter protester on the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville on Friday, August 11, 2017. Before the clash the white nationalists marched with torches through the campus until they were met with counterprotest.
Mykal McEldowney/IndyStar

UVA campus and state police yell to disperse as white nationalists and counterprotesters feud on the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville on Friday, August 11, 2017.
Mykal McEldowney/IndyStar

A white nationalist sits on a bench after being pepper sprayed by counterprotesters in Charlottesville on Friday, August 11, 2017. Before the clash the white nationalists marched with torches through the University of Virginia campus until they were met with counterprotest.
Mykal McEldowney/IndyStar

The ADL held a briefing in the wake of the Charlottesville incident, with security experts making recommendations to Jewish institutions to keep their facilities safe.

"For the Jewish community, security is always a concern," said Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL CEO. "There’s no reason for alarm in the aftermath of Charlottesville, but we felt it was important for ADL to bring law enforcement and Jewish community institutions together to ensure communities across the country are prepared and safe."

High-profile incidents of hate symbols have been reported across the country in recent months, from nooses in the nation's capital to racist graffiti on the front gate of LeBron James' Los Angeles home to a banner with an anti-Semitic slur over a Holocaust memorial in Lakewood, New Jersey.

Places like southwestern Utah, with its relatively tight communities and low rates of reported violent crimes, are not immune to the problems, Cashin said.

Since seeing the swastika, Cashin has worked to publicize it across social media and among community leadership. She's scheduled to speak in front of the Hurricane City Council next Thursday, where she'll push for them to sign a resolution denouncing anti-Semitism and other forms of hate.

The organizer of the Free Spirit Community, a local spiritual group, Cashin is also a member of the area’s St. George Interfaith Council, and she is urging spiritual and religious leadership to address the issue during services.

"I’m calling on all leaders, our business leaders, our spiritual leaders, our political leaders, to take a stand for inclusiveness and tolerance and for love so that every resident of Washington County can feel safe," she said.

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What initially began as a need for space, turned into an interfaith dialogue between Muslims and Jews in Northern Virginia. Every Friday, Muslims worship at a Reston synagogue, a tradition that is widely attended during the month of Ramadan. (July 1)
AP

Rabbi Helene Ainbinder, with the Beit Chaverim Jewish congregation based in Ivins, said hearing about a swastika, the ultimate sybol of hate, is always worrisome.

There is no way to know the motive behind the swastika, Ainbinder said. It doesn’t mean anyone is out to do harm and could just be a prank or an attempt to get attention.

But it’s an opportunity to have a conversation, and about problems that could surface in the St. George area the same way they have in many other places, she said.

"If you don’t make your voice known then it's lost, that opportunity, that moment," she said.

Cashin is scheduled to speak at the Hurricane City Council meeting Sept. 7, and she has reached out to other municipal leaders about coming to their councils.

"I'm shouting it from the rooftops, so anybody who is in a position to make a difference can understand that we are not immune and we must be on alert," she said.

At Cashin's request, management at the State Bank of Southern Utah removed the sign.

Darin Larson, a bank manager who also sits on the city council, said he personally helped remove the sign and would welcome Cashin at a council meeting.

St. George Mayor Jon Pike said he has yet to speak to members of the city council about Cashin's request but he personally supported the idea of making a proclamation or raising a resolution.

"I would like to think that most people, the vast majority of people living here, would not agree with those ideas, that one person is better than another because of what they look like or what they believe," he said. "It's protected speech, but it's hate speech, and it's certainly illegal in cases like this where it's done on somebody's property."

Eric Allsop, the loan officer featured on the sign, said he had also been planning to take it down once he heard about the swastika. He said it was an older sign that was only recently exposed when another sign that had been installed on top of it was blown off by winds about a week ago, and he suspected the swastika may have been there for years but covered by the newer sign.

Cashin disagreed, saying she walks past frequently and would have noticed before Saturday if the symbol was older.

Regardless, Cashin said she doesn't see reason to brush off the incident or to ignore the role hate groups and their symbolism could play in the nation's divisive political climate.

The FBI reported more than 12,700 biased-motivated criminal incidents and offenses nationally in 2015, the most recent year for which data is available, with nearly 60 percent of the 7,121 victims targeted for their race, 20 percent targeted for their religion and 18 percent because of their sexual orientation.

In Utah, 33 of 59 reported incidents were related to race, 14 for religion and 10 because of sexual orientation.

A report released this month from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, based on data from the National Crime Victimization Survey, suggested the real numbers are much higher, with Americans experiencing an average of 250,000 hate crimes each year from 2004 to 2015. Many surveyed said they didn’t report the crimes because they believed the police would not be able to help them.